At the start of the summer, the weight of the many increasingly hot days ahead can feel like an impossible burden to bear. At the end, it feels hard to let go of the late sunsets, windows-down drives, and evening walks after an afternoon thunderstorm. I’ve been telling out-of-towners and newcomers that summer in the south is like reverse winter: it gets so hot that everything slows as people shut themselves inside–or escape to better climes, pools and patios. The Doldrums seeks encapsulate the kind of summer heat that doesn’t ever seem like it will fade.

Earlier this year I discovered a remix of Mind Mischief by Tame Impala (already a favorite) by ambient artist The Field that felt like a distillation of an entire summer’s worth of long days. Stretched out and cavernous, this song predates the “slowed + reverb” trend by half a decade and was a major inspiration for this playlist. After all, Kevin Parker’s trademark neo-psychedelia, especially on Lonerism, is already reminiscent of being pleasantly semi-delirious from too much sun; transforming one of those songs into a shimmering ambient-techno marathon is sure to accentuate that feeling.

It’s not accident that many of my favorite releases from this year slot nicely into this playlist. The downtempo beats of mixmaster Kenny Segal featured on this year’s Maps (but also Purple Moonlight Pages (2021) and So the Flies Don’t Come (2015), both with R.A.P. Ferreira) pair melodic riffs and jazzy percussion with sustained chimes and bass booms, providing a calm but colorful backdrop for his emcee to work with. “Sun in the sky, you know how I feel / breeze drifting on, you know how I feel,” billy woods croons in the hook of “Soft Landing” and you have to imagine he’s feeling pretty good. Maps comprises the second collaboration between Segal and woods, with their previous effort Hiding Places being represented here by “Spongebob” — whose weighty, spartan groove feels like a natural accompaniment to the weariness brought on by heat.

George Clanton’s Ooh Rap I Ya was one of my most anticipated albums of the summer given my love of 2018’s Slide and the 2020 single “Aurora Summer” (a key track of that year’s summer indoors). I will admit to initial doubts given the inanity of the title, but the title track itself became one of my favorites. Of course, the preceding single “I Been Young” is perhaps the best example of Clanton’s nostalgia-pop to date, as is evident just from the title. He’s long been accustomed working with the kind of lofty synths that hang behind the music like puffy clouds.

I didn’t have the chance to see many concerts this summer, but one act I made sure to catch was King Krule. Fresh off of the release of their fourth album, King Krule went from a band that held a passing interest for me to one I had in constant rotation. The delicacy of songs like “Flimsier,” “Seaforth,” and “Tortoise of Independency” were a surprise to me, and in fact became a catalyst for me to dive deeper into Archy Marshall’s back catalogue. The live renditions of the songs are invigorated with a new energy (a glimpse of which can be felt in the recent live album You Heat Me Up, You Cool Me Down ). The hit “Dum Surfer” was a standout of the set, although I did find myself wondering how the band felt about an audience so passionate about the lyric “the band is playing f***ing trash…”

A couple of songs I wasn’t sure fit into the criteria I had self-determined for The Doldrums, namely the shoegaze songs “Polaris” and “Something in the Summer Rain” by Parannoul and Sadness respectively. The latter seemed appropriate in its general vibe but is rather long and gets quite a bit yelly; the former came out early in the year, but I still found myself queueing up “Polaris” often when listening to this playlist. Ultimately, the release of everything is alive by shoegaze titans Slowdive on September 1 helped influence my decision, as it brought more spacey, guitar-forward late additions to the theme. I love the imagery of “chained to a cloud,” which comes less from the lyrics and more from the title and overall impression of the music.

I did try to feature mainly recent releases, not all of the entries here are strictly from 2023. One of the key tracks that inspired The Doldrums was “Knees” by Injury Reserve, which comes from 2021. A few songs from By The Time I Get to Phoenix actually made the list, as it is an album that perfectly engenders a feeling of suffocating heat with oppressively dense production and vivid lyrical depictions of a world on fire. In stark contrast to other songs on the album, “Knees” appears to be in slow motion.

There’s plenty more to discover within this playlist that represent a lot of my listening rotation from the past several months. Among them a couple of hazy tracks from Memphis-rapper-turned-hypnagogic-pop-artist Lil Ugly Mane, a chillwave/reggaeton crossover from producer Tainy’s breakout solo effort, and the latest trippy breakbeat from IDM legend Aphex Twin. To hear them all, you will have to endure The Doldrums yourself.